Archspire has announced a fall Canadian headlining tour starting on September 20th in Victoria, BC and ending in the group’s hometown of Vancouver, BC on October 20th. The tour will also see Archspire joined by label-mates Beyond Creation as a headliner on select Ontario dates. Full details can be found in the tour poster below.

On October 20th, U.K. act Monuments will sell the previously unreleased track “Memoirs” as a special single to raise money for the treatment of a close friend of the band who has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer.

Century media comments, “Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (or PMP) is a cancer of the appendix and is so rare that it can only be treated by a small number of specialists, none of whom are in the UK. Treatment must be sought internationally, and the costs are likely to exceed tens of thousands of pounds.”

Monuments’ Adam Swan (bass) explains: “Hi everyone! We will be releasing ‘Memoirs’ via Bandcamp as of October 20th. All proceeds will be going to our good friend Laura, who recently found out she has a condition called Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (or PMP), a rare form of cancer of the appendix that affects less than one in a million people. We will be releasing ‘Memoirs’ to raise money for her as there are very few people in the world who are able to treat this condition and none are in the UK due to its rarity. She will have to travel abroad for the treatment and it will be extremely expensive. There will be a minimum donation of £2 for the track, however it’ll be possible to give as much as you want, so please give generously. We would like to give a big shout out to Neema Askari, Joe Garret, John Sprich, James Monteith, Mel Schmidt, Steve Joh and everyone at Century Media for making this possible so quickly. Thank you.”

Check out the “Memoirs” trailer below. The band would also like to raise awareness about this condition as it is often misdiagnosed due to its extreme rarity. For further information about PMP, head over to this location.

Chicago’s doom metal act Earthen Grave announces that the band has parted ways with longtime drummer Scott Davidson. Davidson played on the group’s 2009 “Dismal Times” debut EP and recently-released full-length album “Earthen Grave.” The band issued a collective statement this week:

“We wish Scott all the best with his many other projects including his long time running Chicago’s Rebel Radio, his Sabbath/Dio tribute band Heaven & Hell Chicago and all his future endeavors.”

Earthen Grave is currently auditioning drummers for Davidson’s replacement. In the meantime, Earthen Grave will perform a special semi-acoustic show at The Iron Ward in Cleveland this Saturday, October 20th featuring Rachel Barton Pine, Ron Holzner, Mark Weiner, Tony Spillman, Jason Muxlow, and Hannah Barton. The band has also confirmed a headlining gig at the Double Door in Chicago on November 30th.

Houston, Texas doom band Sanctus Bellum, who recently released its album “The Shining Path,” has announced a December 22nd gig it will be playing with members of Helstar and Pentagram. The event, The El Birthday Metal Fest II, will take place at Rudyard’s British Pub in Houston on December 22nd.

The two sets the band will perform will be the Sanctus set with James Rivera performing underground metal classics, and the Sanctuary set with Bobby Liebling, playing 70′s Pentagram songs. Sanctus Bellum will also be performing at Skatestock on October 20th and at Warehouse Live on December 1st opening for Helstar.

“Treason, Politics & Death,” a brand new song from Mexico City-based act Acrania, can be downloaded for free at this location or streamed through the player below.

The track comes off the band’s second album “An Uncertain Collision,” which will be released on October 20th. The CD was recorded at Circo Volador Studios in Mexico City and was engineered and mixed by J.C. Chávez and Luis Oropeza. The album features artwork made by Eliran Kantor (Atheist, Testament, Sodom, etc.). The track listing is:

Acrania’s drummer J.C. Chávez stated about the band’s new CD: “I think this time we found the 100% right mix, we finally managed to blend such different styles as Latin Jazz & Death/Thrash Metal, you’re in for a surprise, imagine a Latin version of Orphaned Land mixed with Atheist, having instruments such as saxophone or trumpet leading the way into the unknown. It’s metal, it’s groovy, it’s filled with fast riffs, double bass attacks and brutal groovy songs!” He added, “Artwork is a very important part of it all for us, that’s why the only choice was Eliran Kantor, and as always, he delivered just what the album needed, his art instantly takes your imagination into another dimension, which is exactly what our music does.”

Mexico City based metallers Acrania have posted the fourth part in a behind the scenes footage series taken from the recordings for forthcoming new album “An Uncertain Collision.” Check out this latest clip below.

The album will be available worldwide on October 20th, 2012. The following press release was also issued: “Produced by J.C. Chávez and Luis Oropeza at ‘Circo Volador Studios’ in Mexico City, the album explores a new range of Latin rhythms and instruments that had not been used in previous albums. Merengue, Puerto Rican bomba, cha cha cha, samba and ‘plena,’ are all addressed in this new album, fused with the power of death metal and technical riffs, powerful drumming with unusual rythms within the genre, growls and lyrics that address all kinds of human and spiritual passions.”

Mexican act Acrania has revealed the artwork for the band’s upcoming album entitled “An Uncertain Collision,” which will be available worldwide on October 20th, 2012. The album was produced by J.C. Chávez and Luis Oropeza at “Circo Volador Studios” in Mexico City, and according to a press release, “explores a new range of Latin rhythms and instruments that had not been used in previous albums. Merengue, Puerto Rican bomba, cha cha cha, samba and ‘plena,’ are addressed in this new album, fused with the power of death metal and technical riffs, powerful drumming with unusual rythms within the genre, with growls and lyrics that address all kinds of human and spiritual passions.”

The album’s artwork comes by the hand of Berlin-based artist & illustrator Eliran Kantor, who is known mostly for creating album covers for bands such as Testament, Sodom, Atheist, and Mekong Delta.

Eliran Kantor comments, “I wanted it to be about the emotion behind the music, about the colors and shapes I saw when listening to this music : the passion and the ‘collision’ are represented with the fire, hitting the water, the two symbols of eternity dancing above the skull as it represents mortality – the ‘collision’ comes from these contradictions. I wanted it to really reflect what the album is about, and how it sounds – without using too traditional elements but just hinting at them. The logo gets the idea across that this is a metal album and a metal band.”

Finland’s Amberian Dawn has issued the following announcement about replacing Krypteria at the upcoming Metal Female Voices Fest 2012:

“Hey, we are very happy to announce that it’s confirmed that Amberian Dawn will perform at Metal Female Voices Fest again.

“We’re replacing Krypteria which was announced before. AD had great time playing on MFVF 2009 and once again we’re going to give a stunning show for you. See you all in Octoberhalle on October 20th 2012.”

Additional details on this year’s edition of the MFVF can be found at the festival’s official website here.

Tomorrow, October 20th 2011, metal veterans In Flames will be doing an interactive live video chat with fans. At 1:00 PM PDT / 22:00 CET, Peter and Niclas from the band will be chatting live through Yowie.

At that time, fans can go to this location, where they will be able to submit text or video questions for the band to answer live on video.

In Flames released “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” (reviewed here) earlier this year. The album debuted at #27 on the Top 200 Billboard Charts selling 13,842 copies in its first week.